hey everyone… I am just having some questions which I need help with and I hope I will get some responses from more experienced members… so… does anybody find some things like for example benzodiazepines as well as other sleep drugs that they are not working that well when the things are keeping you away or are waking you up? I mean, they would be much more effective if there would be nothing that would keep you awake…
now the problem s that my partner snores, and he snores very loudly. I do wear ear plugs whenever I go to sleep (otherwise it would be absolutely impossible to get any sleep) but certain types of snore sounds are still getting through, making it extremely hard for me to get any sleep. I also must say that we are sleeping with one of our cats in the room (well, for various required reasons) and he is often going to get up on our pills and chew our hair… well, he is a little bit OCD, LOL.
so now, whenever when he is waking me up doing this any time between around 2 AM and 5 AM, I am very often have to get up and to go use the bathroom and well… this does wakes me up quite a little bit. well, he usually is going to try to chew our hair between around 5 and 20 times in only this 3 hour period and that’s even though we did have had our disciplinary attempts on this.
then later, from around 5 AM or so, the birds, as we all know, start to chirp and now, since it’s late April, the sun also starts to come up and so, I am finding that both of these are interfering with my sleep so I really find it very hard to sleep through them. another thing which makes it hard for me is that my partner is getting up at 5: 30 AM due to his job and each time when he wakes up this wakes me up too. but fine, some of you might say that he wakes up like 10 minutes and that’s it, but besides all of what I have already mentioned above (as if all of that isn’t already enough), there are also very often roadworks outside my building and they are starting at about 6 AM or so and trust me, they can be SO SO loud that not even a closed window can keep those noises away. and then lately, to be more exact, half an hour later, my partner is leaving for his work at 7AM and then again, I am again awake.
gotta mention here that I am going to bed at around midnight or anywhere around that time. I did have tried to go to bed and sleep earlier but I have found it impossible to sleep prior to that time, not sure why. well, I used to have both problems getting asleep as well as problems keeping me asleep. now, I had really hoped and I was expecting that my dosage of benzos would not only help me to get me some sleep (and here I can say that they do this very well, put me to sleep without any problems) however I was hoping that they would also keep me asleep which is not happening… they do not keep me asleep. and I do think that they are not when up against all these things that keeps me awake. I mean, do you think that this is normal? I mean, shouldn’t the benzo work and keep me asleep although there are these bad conditions for sleeping? or do they only work when all of the other conditions are being ideal for being able to sleep and if I achieve such conditions I would be able to sleep normally? I can say that I am finding that I am feeling extremely and very tired from using the medications when I am being kind of forced to keep waking up like that, however I am still not able to sleep. but I do know that even if not using them I would feel similarly tired since I am still not getting sleep. I am just hoping that someone out there might have any suggestions for me. thank you very much!

hi there, I can say that we are both in a very similar situation as I am experiencing very much of what you are having in regards to the benzodiazepines and sleep. what I am talking about is that those medications would really do a good job in knocking me out, puts me to sleep with no issues, however I have found myself to be frequently waking up in order to either go to the bathroom or whatever else that wakes me up and if I do get up then I am not being able anymore to fall back asleep. now I’m waking up pretty frustrated because I do know that if I opened my eyes, I won’t fall asleep again. that’s why, whenever when I go to sleep, I pray not waking up until I would fulfill my sleep.
In addition, I must say that I have had insomnia… literally my whole life… that’s because I can remember well that even being a child I was rarely ever falling asleep early or I was staying asleep the entire night for that matter. whenever when it was happening it was kind of a miracle… that’s how rarely it happened. and so, as I have got older, of course, I was trying to find a solution to this problem and it is obvious that I did have tried different/ various OTC as well as prescription medications and all of that in the attempt to get to sleep, of course. discussed about this with lots of doctors and with lots of other insomniacs trying to get as much opinions and methods as possible. I have tried everything starting with relaxing music, melatonin, to even prescribed ambien/ benzodiazepines and also everything in between. I gotta tell you… nothing has worked for me.

or at least, that’s up until not so long ago. I do know very well that I’ve a lot of people have had some bad experiences with it, unfortunately, however there is one drug that does works miraculously, nothing like others… it is seroquel. I’ve read lots of amazingly bad reviews about it and many of people calling it dangerous etc. however it is literally the only thing that has ever worked for me so well in both knocking me out (putting me to sleep) and most importantly in further keeping me asleep even if I am waking up. this is the only drug that I take when I do not struggle and that’s making me not being afraid if I wake up anywhere in the middle of the night. many of people complained that they were so groggy in the morning that they simply could not go to their jobs etc. yeah, I do know about this and yeah I am also a bit groggy in the morning (at least more than when I do not take it), however I can tell you that a little bit of caffeine does the trick and I am feeling just fine shortly after that. also I found that a bit of morning exercises are working miraculously for the grogginess.

but yeah, as I said, I do know what are you talking about and it seems that this is simply the way that the benzos are working… yes, anecdotally, I can surely say that benzos have never succeeded in keeping me asleep or to help me to fall back asleep. this is the reason why I would say that most likely, the way that the benzo is working for you, is fine.

hi there… I can tell you that I have used generic benadryl when I have had to go to work/ chores kept me up past my (very early) bed time. this is a really cheap and cheeful as well as not ‘nogged’ in the morning. try using this stuff, maybe it’s gonna work fine, you never know until you try it out.

oh yeah, the benadryl… I did have tried that one on a 14 hours flight in order to get me to sleep, or maybe at least to sort of half nod off… however, sadly (for me) I only have been feeling groggy and I was also feeling kind of wired on it too. generally, I’ve just had a very odd feeling while I was on that stuff… needless to mention that I have got no sleep the entire flight which means that it failed to work entirely.
but, one interesting thing is that the last 2 nights I have used just one mg of xanax and surprisingly for me (at least the first night when I used it) I have been sleeping just so so good on it. it makes me relaxed and it allows me to sleep fine. and it doesn’t makes me feel so bad… I am still waking up at around 5AM or so in order to go and use the bathroom, however I am still able to go back to sleep within minutes after getting in bed again and I am generally being able to relax, I am really feeling relaxed. what’s strange is that I found that half life of xanax is short. I’ve been reading information about it as I am really interested in finding out more what do I use. however, even if it has short half life, I am still able to feel it even hours after using the first dosage. bliss! but I do know very well that it can’t last though!
Hillhaven, I also wanted to ask you… do you find that you are able to take seroquel every single night or do you need to take it only sometimes… I mean, only from time to time and to simply put up with a lack of good sleep otherwise? I would be interested in finding out more information about seroquel when you said that you have tried nearly every single available thing for sleep and absolutely nothing works except for seroquel. I will start to do my research on it, but I am still interested in finding out what you can say about it since you have taken it. thanks in advance. btw… I guess you tried xanax? how it worked on you?

hey there… look, in regards to benadryl you must know that it can give you the opposite effect in case you are going to be using too much of it… this might be the explanation of why you were feeling wired on it. depending on what was the dosage that you have taken… I personally know of cases when people were desperate in trying to get sleep and they took a bigger dose of benadryl hoping it would have bigger chances that it would work. but benadryl worked the other way around. people must be really careful on the sleeping pills doses. however I still must tell you that it has never worked for me either and it doesn’t matter the dosage. there are such people like me that benadryl simply can’t help. in regards of xanax – that one is good to put me to sleep only. it was never good to make me stay asleep (in fact, as anything else). not sure if you already know it or not but I must warn you: you can end up being addicted on xanax if you take too much of it… the withdrawals are hell. tolerance also increases so be careful on not using too much of it.

but as far as the seroquel… I can tell you: I am using it most night these days. it is a script from my doctor and I really do not try to overuse it (and it seems that I don’t) and so I am always having enough each month. I got a script from my doctor of this because he knows very well my insomnia issues I have. there indeed are some nights, when I may just be extremely exhausted, where I will just forget to use it and I would still fall asleep even without using it. but then again, those nights are extremely rare and only when I am extremely exhausted. but generally I can tell you one thing for sure: if I would not have it at all then it would be very and VERY difficult for me to fall asleep without it. it would be near to impossible. and my daily life would be much more difficult. however… I do know that most of the doctors just want to write the script due to the fact that seroquel it is not being considered to be a narcotic like ambien or benzodiazepine which they think that both of those are just so dangerous…
so, initially, I have been put on 100 mg but then my dosage has been upped and now I am on a 200 mg dose, however I have not been upped from that dose for quite a while now. I would say that if you are really interested, then I would just talk to your doctor about this. anyway, as I have already mentioned this in my first post here, I did have read that a fair amount of members here have had some pretty bad experiences with it, however it does works for me which I’m really glad and I consider myself to be lucky to be one of those who do benefit from it so much, especially when knowing that there are so many people who just can’t benefit the way I do. and so, having that said, if you do not mind being a little bit groggy for the first like half an hour or maybe even less as soon as you wake up, until the coffee or whatever else you do to wake up kicks in, then I do think that it might be worth to think about trying it out. if you are going to benefit the way I do, the 20 minutes grogginess in the morning would definitely be worth it.

hey, thanks you once again for taking your time answering. I appreciate. but also, I must say that I actually already tend to feel pretty groggy in the morning anyway, so I doubt that it is going to be a ‘new’ feeling or anything like this. anyway, I have noticed that I have always gone to bed late (as if I needed to go late) and I also needed to sleep late. it’s just kind of what my body is requiring. but whichever the case, I still do think that a very big part of that it is the fact that I have interrupted sleep for nearly as much as I can remember myself. but anyway, I can say that I do not usually need to get up at any set time and to ‘go to work’ or something in this matter. I never had a job requiring such things. but anyway, because of this, being groggy in the mornings or to sleep (on and off) like until 11 am are pretty much what I have gotten used to. nothing unusual.

I can relate on the snoring part. this can be so… hard… to say the least. anyway, I know very well that restoril it is a really good drug for staying asleep and I would recommend you to try it out. I have found out that this is a good drug for making me stay asleep (if I fall asleep after I’ve taken it I won’t get up, not at least so easily) but it does very little to put you to sleep. this is the reason why I am using xanax in combination with restoril to sleep. one puts me asleep and the other one keeps me asleep. I am taking this combination because of the horrible insomnia that I am dealing with but also because I’m living with a dog that is snoring worse than any human that I know. I didn’t even imagined that dogs can snore so so damn bad. I am thinking that the generic name of it is temazepam but I am not very sure. you might want to read a bit more about this thing as it is a really good one. or at least for me. good luck.

oh yes, I did have heard that the temazepam is a really good thing for sleep and I do think that there must be a lot of people benefitting from using it. but I’m just so so frustrated by the thing that all of those drugs that really do help, they can’t or at least they should not be taken on a daily basis. or at least that’s what I have heard. I am not very sure how true/ not true this is but that’s what I know, and that’s really sad, and as I said – frustrating. I mean, you barely find something that finally works for you but then you just can’t use it like that so you have to stop… and that’s really sad for me because I do realize very well that I am NEVER going to be able to sleep fine without getting any help from medications, without assistance or aids… and that’s the big problem for me because I really do not want to get the relief and the good sleep only like twice or so per week or whatever it is the doctors allow or ignore that, and end up using like hundreds of pills per night in attempt to get any sleep but none of them any longer work…

I also must say that I am wondering if ANY of those pills would ever work with some kind of certain interruptions from your sleep like for example your partner is bouncing around in bed violently and that’s only because the cat is attacking your partner’s foot. LOL 😀

in addition to that, I must say that I simply just CANNOT risk using anything that could have an effect of some odd nocturnal activity or anything in this matter. like for example, if I happen to leave some kind of certain things out on the bathroom bench while I am sleeping, like for example some kind of pills (sleeping or whatever others), my cat could eat them and she could die. another thing which I am afraid is that if I somehow happen to open the front door in the time that I am sleeping (for whatever the reason) then my strictly indoor only cats could get out and this pretty much means that they would also die… or be lost. or I’m also afraid that if my cat happened to chew on my hair and in my warped sleep I would react somehow strange or something like this then I am very afraid that I could ever hurt her myself and I doubt that I could ever live with that in my mind, that I hurt her. anyway, I do realize that for some people all of this might not be really important, however it is REALLY important for me! I mean, it doesn’t really matter what, but I just can’t risk anything like this to happen. and so, I would be really skeptical in taking any medications that can make this happen.

oh yeah… I do know very well what do you mean about cats and about snoring partners… I perfectly understand. I can tell you that I have been prescribed Trazadone for many years, and I can say that it did has worked very well to keep my asleep and I was absolutely all fine, but that’s unless the cat jumped on me. I couldn’t sleep with him jumping like that. however I could sleep through the snoring with no big problems. however, a while later after taking that trazadone which was indeed helped, I have found out that it has been contributing to brain fog as well as daytime sleepiness as well. by far not the best news… I am thinking that most, if not all of the sleep aids, do have some kind of downsides which is why they must be used in moderation.

well, right now, I am wearing earplugs most of the nights against the snoring which would be impossible to sleep through without the earplugs and luckily, the cat does not usually bother us very much, that’s unless she has decided that we overslept (of course, this is usually happening on the weekends) LOL. I also am trying my best to avoid drinking anytime soon to bedtime, that’s because I am trying to avoid having to get out of the bed due to the fact that they really are waking me up, so I try to drink quite a while before going to bed and I try to make sure that I empty my bladder. and as I said, then later the cat then decides that it is the time for me to get up as well, usually either she’s bored and wants some attention or she’s hungry. or both. to be honest, I really don’t know of anything that could help you with outside forces from waking you up, maybe only except from eliminating the problems somehow… of course… that’s pretty much the only thing that I can do. but in our cats what we can do? sleeping pills for the cat? LOOOL 😀 I don’t know.
well, I did have started embracing the night and getting up when I am not able to sleep. there are sometimes when it means I hit a wall at like 2 PM, however I still do not let myself fret over it anymore! anyway… those o us who have always had some difficulties to sleep, might do pretty well to go with the flow, I think. whatever the case, I can tell you that not so long ago I have found an very interesting book which I can recommend you to read it too. it is about biphasic sleeping. if you’re interested write me and I will tell you the book’s name and author. anyway, from as much as it seems, our ancestors only slept just a few hours, then they were waking up and were doing different activities and after that they went back to bed for a few more hours. not sure if this helps as I have never done it myself, but if believing this, then this might work. I will try to help finding it if you need. good luck and hoping we’re gonna deal with it.

well… thanks for replying. I appreciate that. to be honest, I am really thinking that if I slept alone then I would be much more better, with a lot much better sleep and a more restful sleep either. can’t be sure, of course, but I really think so. that’s because I am thinking that I would stop constantly feeling that tense I feel from the expecting interruptions to my sleep, and those are such things as the snoring which is unbelievable loud, the bed movement, the cat hair chewing as well as foot nibbling from time to time, also the outside traffic noise that it is very loud and as I said, not even a closed window helps and lately, there’s also the light that going through in from the gaps on either side of the curtains. so there are movement interruptions, there are sounds interruptions as well as visible/ light interruptions. in short, I am thinking that there is no normal person that would be able to sleep through all of these. so, it is no surprise that I find it so hard to sleep, isn’t it? and I do think that you are right, the only way of stopping all of these is to somehow deal with the outside sources that interrupts my sleep. I do know very well that even if I would sleep all alone in my own house (per example), then I would still get to go sleep late and to wake up at times, that’s because of the fact that this is the way I am myself… however I still think that this would happen much more rarely and I would sleep much more better because there still be no reason to properly wake up each time and so, even if I did woke up then I still think that I would stand much more chances to fall back asleep, plus fewer chances for anything to wake me up.

and yeah, please, you shouldn’t think that I have not tried to deal with all of this. of course I did… I am already wearing earplugs and I am already having an air purifier white noise machine as well as I have tried to deal with those other outside sources. however, as you can see, I am still having some issues. in fact, being fully honest, I sometimes think that the biggest problem is in me, I mean, I am too sensitive to any of the outside sources, I am waking up too easily from them and it is a problem for me to sleep again. having that said, I do think that I am either needing to live all alone by myself or that I need to invest in a sensory deprivation tank and sleep in it. other than that, I don’t know…
and yeah, by the way, thanks about the ‘no drinking’ part. I appreciate it. I guess that I am going to start doing it myself as well. I mean, I won’t drink close to bed and I would try to empty my bladder. at least one less outside source to wake me up good luck and once again, thank you very much for answering. I am still going to try to do my research on this and maybe I would find some kind of a magical stuff that would make me be able sleep through anything 😀